Gingerbread House
 
Ingredients
Dough:
  • ¾ cup milk
  • ¾ Tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar
  • 6 Tablespoons butter, melted
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup molasses
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ginger
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 6 cups all-purpose flour
Decorations: (optional)
  • 2 cans of store-bought frosting or royal icing *
  • red and green food dye
  • gum drops
  • candy canes
  • cereal (wheat chex)
  • almond slivers
  • coconut
  • marshmallows
Instructions
Making the dough:
  1. Measure lemon juice or vinegar and place in measuring cup. Pour milk into the measuring cup until you have ¾ cup and let sit for 5 minutes. Congrats, you just made buttermilk!
  2. Mix the buttermilk mixture, melted butter, brown sugar, molasses, and the egg with an electric mixer.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk the baking soda, spices, salt, and 1 cup of flour.
  4. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture until it is fully incorporated.
  5. Add the remaining flour one cup at a time until you have a smooth, stiff dough. It should not be crumbly or sticky.
  6. Divide the dough into thirds, form into discs, and wrap them in plastic.
  7. Refrigerate for at least one hour or overnight.
Rolling and Baking:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F
  2. Roll out dough ⅛ - ¼ inch thick on parchment paper with a lightly floured rolling pin. Do not try to transfer the dough to the pan without parchment paper. Silipats don't work well either because the dough sticks to it.
  3. Place the template on top of the dough and cut the shape out.
  4. Peel scraps away from cut outs and place the parchment on the baking sheet.
  5. Make any window or door cut outs.
  6. Make sure you have at least 4 sides and 2 roof pieces.
  7. Place another sheet of parchment paper on top of the shapes and then place a second baking sheet on top of the second piece of parchment. So the order will be cookie sheet, parchment paper, gingerbread, parchment paper, cookie sheet. The second baking sheet on top of the gingerbread pieces will keep them from puffing up in the oven and will give you a nice flat surface to decorate on.
  8. Bake for 14-18 minutes or until the edges are brown.
  9. Cool on the pans and then peel the parchment away from the pieces.
Decorating:
  1. See the post above for some ideas for decorating.
  2. It is much easier to do the detailed decorating before assembling.
  3. For the frosting, I dyed about ¼ cup of the frosting with green food coloring and about 1 Tablespoon of the frosting with red food coloring.
Assembly:
  1. To get the first two sides, pipe or smear 2 lines of frosting onto your platter that the sides can sit in. Then pipe or smear frosting onto the seam side of one of the side pieces. They shouldn't be too wobbly but if you're worried put a box of pasta or a can of something up against the side to help support the wall.
  2. Continue with the other two sides in the same way.
  3. For the roof, do not try to have the roof piece overhang the wall. You need the support of the wall edge being right up against the roof piece's edge. Again, frost all the seams before attaching.
Notes
For royal icing:
Mix 2 cups of powdered sugar, 1½ Tablespoons meringue powder, and 3 Tablespoons of warm water in a stand mixer for 3 to 4 minutes. If you pull the beater out of the icing, it should be thick enough that the dripping icing is very slow to meld back into the icing in the bowl but not so thick that it is a frosting consistency. If it is too thin, add some more powdered sugar. If it is too thick, add a little water. You'll want the icing to be a bit thicker than what you would use to decorate cookies.
Recipe by Birch Tree Baking at https://www.birchtreebaking.com/gingerbread-house/